Bunker Down
by IcedChaiChibi
Summary: Musings and Dribbles prompted by some LIS Buddies...What If Chloe's fate in the ending of Episode 4 had been different?...
1. Additional Passengers

The first thing I'm able to register is darkness, not...not normal darkness, It's absolute pitch, something feels off about It, But what? I cannot place.

Then feeling of cold. Everything Is cold, very cold, not enough to suffer hypothermia but the uncomfortable chill nips at my fingertips, nose and ears.

Now the third sensation, is that I am being carried. Out of reflex I try to shift, To move, but nothing. No matter how much I struggle to make the simplest movement or gesture, It's all In vain.

I can feel my pulse increase rapidly as I try to make sense of my current situation and my increasing concern at my total lack of control over any motor functions when suddenly I feel a brief pinch in my shoulder, Which Is followed by a warm sensation that spreads out and over me like a blanket.

With this feeling of warmth comes a sudden wave of sleepiness, I try my best to fight It. As I battle the growing grogginess, I'm dimly aware of being set down into what feels like the plush seat of a car. The soft jingle of keys followed by the rumbling of an engine confirms this.

Suddenly an all too familiar voice speaks up beside me.

"My apologies for the delay, Max...I was not planning on having two additional passengers this evening. I'm not particularly fond of 'winging It'. But It's an amateur mistake, leaving witnesses. Don't worry though, we're right on schedule, despite this hiccup...And I think this will actually work In our favor."

Mercifully sleep finally overtakes me, and Mark Jeffersons voice fades away, replaced instead by a dreamless sleep.


	2. Welcome To The Dark Room

Happy Thanksgiving~ Until you've had a stare off with a wild deer, you don't know what real fear Is. I am totally being serious.

I hadn't always had the best sense of balance, so the amount of time I had to spend simply standing on the train tracks without immediately falling on my face, took a considerable amount of concentration, it was an impressive feat really...that is until I turned my head and saw Chloe walking along the tracks backwards.

A small voice in my head chirped up with a 'Truly I am the single most talented girl of my generation. My best friend might as well be running backwards and I can't even manage to take a step without teetering or tottering over.'

I gaped at Chloe as I hopped off the tracks, instead opting to walking along side them to avoid any further face plants and to not be left behind, I was honestly confused as to how my friend could so effortlessly walk like that.

Birds fleet about from tree to tree and sing and tweet sweetly, apparently unaware of my inner turmoil.

"Chloe, you know that isn't very safe. You're just asking to trip on something. Besides now you're just being a showoff..." She just looked up at me and grinned.

"Relax Dude, Besides, What am I going to trip on? A squirrel?" She spun on her heel and turned back around, crossing over to walk next to me.

I laughed as she wrapped an arm around my shoulder, giving me a brief sidehug.

"I think most of the squirrels are over at BlackWell, Samuel seems to have a knack for attracting them. Like a pied piper but with woodland critters." I say softly and look around trying to spot a stray squirrel, but no, not a bushy tail in sight.

Chloe starts to reply back, making what I think Is a really corny and equally inappropriate joke about squirrels, But now my mind is starting to wander as I search the surrounding forest for other animals.

There are a few birds, much less than before, and even fewer are singing, and all of them I notice are perched seemingly stock still on the various trees.

I almost feel like we're stuck in the movie "The Birds" and at any moment I'll be dive bombed by countless birds of all species, colors, shapes and sizes. Thankfully that never actually happens.

Feeling eyes burning into the back of my head, I whip my head around expecting to see Chloe but she's nowhere near me and in fact is already headed back towards the junkyard, something in the distance seems to have captured her attention for the moment.

"Did Frank return? Surely Chloe would have noticed. Then again neither of us had noticed Frank before until he walked right up to us." I cast an eye over my shoulder at my best friend, but she's still going on her merry way and doesn't seem the least bit concerned.

"You're just being paranoid, considering everything that's happened, that's understandable. But don't give yourself an ulcer worrying about what has already happened, just because you can rewind time doesn't mean fix everything and it certainly doesn't make you some all-seeing being…" I sigh to myself and glance in the direction Chloe had gone.

"Just because you grew up around here, doesn't mean you can find your way back to town, by foot from an unfamiliar place…" I began to jog after Chloe, Thank goodness the vibrant blue that was her hair was not one of the colors that you'd find 'naturally occurring in nature.'

Even so I was lagging seriously behind and as Chloe rounded a corner up ahead, I completely lost sight of her and had to break into a run, worried I'd get hopelessly lost in the few minutes I managed to lose sight of her.

Fortunately for me, Chloe noticed and not far ahead she had stopped to wait for me, she looked incredibly bored, leaning against one of the many old and weathered cars that sat strewn about the land, poor things had seen better days, sadly like a lot of Arcadia Bay.

She cocked her head at me as I approached, the look of annoyance she gave me was now replaced by a look I couldn't quite put a name to, but it looked as if she was trying to decide whether to be confused or amused.

"Sorry for making you wait-" I attempted to apologize but was cut off before I could finish.

"So who's your new friend, Max?" She motioned over my shoulder, "Now we're almost like mystery Inc, Except we're missing two members and our mascot will probably book It any second now…" She kept her gaze focused on the area behind me.

I turned my head nervously, earlier paranoia creeping up again, half expecting to see bigfoot standing there, Instead a doe stared back at me, she was unexpectedly close too, Chloe continued on as the deer continued to look at us, It was a little unnerving to be honest.

"She's been following you for a good distance too. Didn't you notice?..."

"No Chloe, I didn't notice…" I watched as the doe looked back at the pair of us.

Encountering seemingly friendly wildlife wasn't unheard of, with enough human interaction- aka feeding wild animals 'against your better judgement'.

Animals can become significantly more brave and less afraid or timid or cautious of humans.

However that didn't seem to be the case with this doe, as cool as it would be to essentially have a pet deer.

There was something strange about her, the way she kept glancing between us almost gave me the impression that she was following our conversation.

I was probably imagining that part but chloe had been the one to point out our close proximity and it was clear neither of us were imagining that.

"Rachel would like this...she's always liked deer..."

Chloe's comment made me look around and lose my train of thought.

"So she's not a dog person or cat person?" I asked as I tilted my head at her curiously.

"Oh no, no she's a dog and cat person. Just a deer person too." Chloe said and briefly paused before adding "Unlike yours truly she was also a people person. Though..." Chloe smiled at me "I can make exceptions."

"Let me guess, you're...a cat person and dog person and-" I paused a moment to think, out of the corner of my eye I saw the doe retreating towards the trees but not before giving us one final look before disappearing back into the woods.

"You'd probably be a shark person, if that's actually a thing."

Chloe beamed at me, "You think BlackWell would let me keep a shark in their pool?..." Chloe had slid off the car and had begun heading back to where she had parked.

I almost tripped as I joined Chloe, falling in step beside her, my voice came out in a surprisingly high pitched squeak, "Chloe!"

"Chill Max, I'm kidding and besides a shark can't survive in chlorinated water, and what would I feed them?...Nathan Prescott?"

"That's so mean Chloe..."

"Yeah I guess, I-"

"You'd make the shark sick."

Chloe smirked, but didn't say anything, after a moment she just shook her head and linked arms with me.

Before I knew it I was already out of the wilderness and sliding into the passenger seat of Chloe's truck and in moments we were already back on the road, and surprise surprise, It was raining, no crazy tornadoes though thankfully.

I rested my head against the passenger side window, listening as Chloe flipped through the stations, trying to find a station that wasn't either country or pure static, In moments I drift off and everything went dark, everything was quiet and calm and I was at peace.

But then without warning more radio static broke the calm, however It was only for a brief moment before a weather announcement took its place. A severe weather announcement.

Hearing this, I tried to stir, open my eyes or sit up, but I struggled to do so. Something wasn't right, a horrible feeling of dread washed over me as I fought to move, to yell, open my eyes- Anything!...The only noise that escaped was a muffled whimper.

Surely I couldn't have been that exhausted from walking around with Chloe, sure I had been tired as I was not quite used to running around so much, but so tired that I blacked out?

Chloe would've woken me up by now right? Especially if the weather sudden turned so sour.

Something wasn't right...come to think of it the last time I had done this was back before I had moved away...Back when William was still alive.

I can recall one morning at the Price house where I had been 'Dueling' with Chloe's dad for pancakes, specifically for the title of "King or Queen of the Pancake Kingdom."

It had been a very intense battle with equally talented competitors and we were down to the very last pancake. Chloe sat across from me, Joyce was right beside her, both equally amused, Joyce suddenly became very serious as she raised the makeshift flag that her and Chloe had fashioned cleverly out of a spoon and a napkin.

"It's all come down to this, first one to touch their fork to the pancake wins the coveted title." She raised the flag above her head, as William and I cocked back our wrists and adjusted the aim of our forks, "On your mark, get set...Go!"

It was almost like a scene out of the Matrix, except instead of a dude in a suit who's dodging bullets and clones it's two people and a single pancake. Unfortunately, somewhere along the line something went…wrong.

In my enthusiasm I overshot the pancake and instead my fork nailed the edge of the plate that the sweet breakfast goodness was sitting upon and to my absolute horror the pancake flew off the plate and hit William square in the face. The way the flapjack flew through the air before impact was actually kind of majestic.

The short but awkward silence that followed was palpable, my face growing hot with embarrassment and nervousness making my stomach fill with butterflies, equally nervous and embarrassed butterflies.

I put up my hands in would be surrender, glancing from the surprised faces of Chloe and her mother then back to her syrup covered father.

"Oh my gosh- William, I'm so sorry…" a snort from across the table makes me trail off and I look back in Chloe's direction, she's just barely holding in her laughter and Joyce Is now chuckling softly.

"I appreciate your enthusiasm Max, but perhaps you could warn me next time if you've upped your pancake game…I am but a simple novice in these duels…" William said to me as I warily looked up at him, but he simply smiled sweetly back at me and laughed at the serious expression I wore, but like his smile his laugh was genuine and held no ill will or malice not that I thought the man capable of harboring such emotions.

I couldn't help but smile back as the room filled with laughter, It was a warm sound that spread through the room and became infectious. The Prices really were like family, or no- They were family.

Sadly my reminiscing was cut short when I felt familiar pinch in my shoulder, for some reason, following the pinch, my senses and motor functions began to return...with my confusion came relief, the relief won out, though movement was still what I would call tired or sleepy, I was now in a better position to try yet again to assess my current situation.

From what I could tell I was laying on my stomach on a padded surface- maybe a couch it could have been a bed but the cushioned whatever it was underneath me didn't quite feel like any bed I had ever slept on, plus it felt a little cramped...more importantly I felt something binding my feet and wrists together.

Oh shoot.

Oh shoot, oh shoot, oh shoot...

I forced my eyes open, only to be met but a blurry and very much out of focus image.

squirming around anxiously, I tried to vent my frustations but at the moment my face was essentially planted into the...the couch so all that came out was muffled and sleepy gibberish.

I went to try to turn my head and immediately regretted it as a painfully bright white light hit my eyes- what? Was I staring directly into the sun? As I turned my head away and shut my eyes a soft click sounded from across from me and mercifully the light dimmed considerably.

Briefly I felt a warmth on my shoulders as a pair of hands gripped and pulled, I felt myself being sat up and repositioned, I had reflectively squeezed my eyes shut at the contact but once I felt the hands retreat I cautiously opened my eyes.

While it was still not 20/20, my vision had cleared considerably and with the lights around me notably dimmed down I was able to look around and take in my surroundings. First thing and notably the most alarming thing I notice Is that I'm back in the dark room, however a modification had been made to a portion of the space in that part of it was actually sectioned off into a small but separate room. Complete with a shiny new door and everything.

Chloe and I were just here, how had someone built that in so little time?

A low voice spoke up somewhere behind me that made me jump.

"This must be a bit disorienting for you Max, I'm sorry about the lighting. I was in a bit of a rush when I brought you here, you wouldn't believe how quickly that storm came down on Arcadia. I hadn't had time to move everything before the weather escalated. Under normal conditions those lights can be rather harsh on the eyes."

That voice...

I turned my head to look over my shoulder for the source of the voice and its owner.

Jefferson stood, arms crossed, fiddling with a radio, several paces away from me.

It only took a split second for memories to come rushing back.

Fear and anger and anguish gnawed at me as the scene at the junkyard played itself back in my head like a horror movie I couldn't look away from.

The man I had formerly admired and I'm embarrassed to say, had a crush on, my teacher...had murdered my best friend. And now that same man had the nerve, had the gall to talk to me as though nothing had happened?

And on top of that, how could I forget the fact that for all intents and purposes he had kidnapped me as well.

I watched as his face contorted for a moment in brief horror as one of the stations he passed began to play the chainsmokers song 'selfie', had the situation been different I'd have probably laughed at that.

"For awhile there you had me worried, Max. I was concerned you had, had an adverse reaction to what I had..." Jefferson cut himself short as he turned off the radio and finally turned to face me.

The look of what appeared to be actual, genuine concern on his face caught me off guard, but not enough to stop me from glaring daggers at him. What's the saying? If looks could kill?...

Jefferson fell abruptly silent as his eyes met mine, his brow furrowed as he watched me as if searching my face for something.

"Not quite the doe eyed look I've been expecting..." he hesitated before walking around the couch, then bent down in front of me and tilted his head to look up into my eyes,

"That's quite a scary face you're making, Maxine. Such harsh expressions don't suit you..." he took ahold of my chin and gently turned my head, I shivered as he did so.

What had he been doing while I was out? Soaking his hands in ice water?

"And no retort about the use of your name..."

As he prattled on I glanced down and briefly considered trying to either knee him in the chin or kick him in the groin but he stepped away before I could try either.

However the look on his face quickly made me realize that was probably a good thing.

"The consequences of that would not have been worth it, miss Caufield, Believe me..."

He gave me a humorless smile as he carefully took off the latex gloves he was wearing and tossed them into a nearby trash can before circling back round the couch as grabbing his suit jacket and folded it neatly over one arm.

"I'd love to sit and chat with you Max, but I have other matters to attend to and I still need to keep up some appearance of normality..." He smiled as he turned to leave.

"Because nobody would suspect the art teacher to be a murderer, right?..." My voice comes out horse, But congrats me, you can finally speak.

Mr Jefferson tenses up, stopping in his tracks, tugging on his jacket in the process. He doesn't turn his body but only rotates his head just enough to look back at me, his face is unreadable and that just makes me all the more anxious.

"That, miss Caufield, is a very serious accusation..."

I snap at him, "It's a fact not an accusation! You shot someone and in cold blood, what do you call that?! Self defense?"

By this time he has completely turned around and is stock still, his face has contorted slightly, I can't be sure of what all he does or says is genuine, but the look of shock and surprise that's crept onto his face definitely looks real.

"What on earth are you referring to, Max? I've never shot anyone and I most certainly-" he's inches from my face before I can react, "Have never murdered anyone."

"My best friend- My best friend! You shot her point blank, she's dead thanks to you!" I plant my foot and try to stand up to ram my head into his nose but my legs refuse to cooperate and he steps back and almost falls on his back as his legs hit the table next to the couch.

Then there's just silence, an awkward uncomfortable...an unsettling silence, it creeps all throughout the room like a fog, the anger is drained from the mans face and is left with a blank stare, I can hear the tick tock of a nearby clock and the rain and wind outside but nothing else, this lasts for a good few minutes before Jefferson blinks and inhales sharply. He runs a hand through his hair and straightens his back, muttering something I can't quite make out.

"Your partner in crime is not dead max, Chloe Price was it?..." He sighs heavily and passes the couch and heads to the small back room.

He produces a key, unlocks the door and enters it, muffled, what I can assume is cursing or complaining comes from the room, followed by several thumps and something rather breakable being knocked over.

"In retrospect I should have mentioned this, if nothing else to save me the trouble of explaining this now..." Jefferson called to me, As he exited the room he had to people in tow. How he could manage that was beyond me, I never would have expected this hipster to be that strong, Immediately I recognized the squirming and kicking girl whom Jefferson had over his shoulder to be Chloe, the second person, he was dragging by the collar of his hoodie, was Nathan.

"Chloe?..." Tears slowly flowed down my cheeks but I didn't care, she was alive, she was really alive- I don't know how yet but she's alive. I wasn't sure she heard me at first, but all doubt was brushed aside when she looked up at me and froze, no longer fighting against him, Jefferson hefted Chloe off of his shoulder and sat her down against the wall across from me, he plopped Nathan down beside her but the brunette anxiously scooted away into the nearby corner.

Unlike me, Chloe and Nathan had their hands bound behind their backs as well as a peice of duct tape over their mouths, or in Chloe's case several pieces. Upon further inspection there were several more layers of binding around her legs too.

"See? Very unhappy, but physically fine. And you needn't worry, she can breathe fine as well, she's very...Spirited. Verbally and otherwise, the excessive force is simply a little insurance."

Jefferson patted me on the shoulder as he made his way to the exit, "Feel free to catch up."

I listened carefully as Mr Jeffersons footsteps faded away and the door to the bunker opened then rolled shut and locked, I tumbled off the couch and scooted over to Chloe and awkwardly hugged her, only letting go when she began to squirm.

I pulled back and looked at Chloe searching for injuries, thankfully I found none, I reached up to the corner of the duct tape and after repeatedly apologizing began the lengthy process of removing it, Chloe letting lose a colorful string of words as I did so until I finally freed the last peice.

"He didn't hurt you did he?" Chloe asked and examined me for a few minutes.

"No I don't think so..." I scooted away from Chloe and over to Nathan, who looked up in alarm, I flinched as I looked him over, he was considerable more black and blue, he tried to scoot away from me as a reached out to remove the tape from his mouth but stilled as I took ahold of the edge of the tape and tried to remove it as gentle as possible, eventually I got it off but his eyes were watering considerably.

"I'm sorry Nathan..." I knew he was a bully and could be a real jerk and I can only imagine all the other things he's done...but I felt incredibly guilty seeing him in that state.

I awkwardly scooted in between Nathan and Chloe, I didn't feel right leaving Nathan balled up alone in the corner and I wasn't entirely sure he and Chloe wouldn't get in some sort of squabble or fight so better safe and make this a little uncomfortable then sorry and have someone get hurt.

Chloe pulled a face but said nothing about my close proximity to the young Prescott, "So Mad Max, you have a brilliant escape plan yet?..."

"I'm working on that, Chloe...But I...can't do the thing now, at least not for the moment and I don't want to risk trying it and making things worse or having nothing happen or for Ali know I could just erase my existance entirely. There have been people in situations just as bad if it worse than ours and they made it out with their desire to live and strength of willpower alone. We can do that too, I know it." Though wary, Chloe nodded in agreement beside me.

Before the room was plunged into silence, Nathan softly added, "I Hope you can do it, Max..."

Yeah...yeah I hope so too.


	3. Pause out of respect

For the time being, (it WILL be out though, when the timing is appropriate.) I thought it may be insensitive and tasteless posting the next part of this, for the time being, given how recent Hurricane Harvey hit and how much loss and hardship those effected still have to face. I know there's a different between a tornado in a video game and an actual real life hurricane but it seems best to wait to post anything. Unsure how long that'll be, I wish to try to be as respectful as possible.

Our prayers and condolences to any and all effected by Hurricane Harvey, hopefully you'll be able to find some peace and the waters will soon be calm for you. ㈻1 ❤️


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